A recent weekend found me wearing a shirt with the headline, “Gold in the Old.” It’s a t-shirt advertising Discovery Channels’ show, Fast & Loud. It’s a fun, lighthearted show, reality of course, (yeah), and it’s based on this fella, Richard Rawlins, who buys cars for cheap and either fixes and sells them or just re-sells them. His business, Gas Monkey Garage, is located in Dallas.

Coincidentally, I was out in my own shop for the better part of yesterday afternoon with my oldest daughter who was helping me “organize.” No small task. She loves to organize so it’s a perfect match.

The point was for me to get resources I have in places where I know they’ll be and lump them together with like resources. So, when I need them, I can find them quickly. I can also see what I don’t have and what I do have for resources (20 years of resources piled up in my shop – that’s a lot of 3-ring binders, hundreds of cassette tapes (remember those), hundreds of books and courses of all kinds).

It’s hard to organize this stuff, especially when it’s your own and you’re really just fine with how everything is stacked in piles (I am a pile stacker person).

Anyway – in going through all these piles and boxes, I kept noticing different pieces of brilliant information – some I’d written, some I’d purchased.

It was: Gold in the Old.

Turns out, after the afternoon wrapped up and it was time to get some dinner, I had a 6” pile on my desk in my office that I now needed to rifle through. It’s great stuff, all relevant and all really useful.

Some of the best advice I re-read from the umpteenth time: Go the opposite direction your competitors are heading – you’ll stand out. In other words, don’t do what every dentist in your area is doing. Be different. Innovate.

Another one – often a hard one for us entrepreneurs to swallow: You’ll never have a perfect business and you’ll never be totally “done.” Deal with it.

That alone was worth spending 3 hours rummaging through my old stuff to organize it. It was cleansing – purging even.

You and I have goals we set for ourselves. Some we write down, some we verbalize to others. (Using both methods at the same time is best. Public pronouncement and writing them down is hard to beat. Then of course, measuring how you do each and every day. This is how goals are met. It’s not a secret. There’s nothing mysterious about it.)

One goal I know you’d really like to hit is to have more new patient referrals. Right?

My question: Are you doing what you should be to get them? Or, are you “hoping” and just not getting?

My guess: You’re doing only a small portion of what you should be to get more. In fact, if I were in your office today, would I even hear your staff (any of them) talk to a patient about referring?

Would I see a newer sign proclaiming you welcome new patient referrals? Would I hear YOU have a convo with any patient about referring? Would I see any pieces of mail being prepared or already mailed (samples) of anything you’ve crafted to generate more referrals?

Would I see a monthly newsletter sent via email and snail mail? (If you’re only doing one, you’re MISSING a huge opportunity – one of the single biggest for practice growth!)

Would I see a chart on the wall in the plush staff lounge where you are plotting out which team member has referred the most patients and the rewards available? (Display pics of the rewards!)

Would I overhear your office manager training staff on asking for referrals?

If the answer is NO to any of these questions, then you’re asking for something that will never happen to the degree you want due to one thing: INCONGRUENT BEHAVIORS and no tracking of the goal.

Fix them. You then should have 1 staff meeting every month on REFERRALS and your team’s plan to generate more all the time. Ongoing meetings over this one thing will DOUBLE your referrals every year! You could go 100% referral! But, unless you’re willing to do the bare minimum above, you’ll never get there.

Attrition. It’s an ugly word in business. It’s defined one of two ways on Google.com:

1. The action or process of gradually reducing the strength or effectiveness of someone or something through sustained attack or pressure. 2. The gradual reduction of a workforce by employees’ leaving and not being replaced rather than by their being laid off.

Have you ever stopped to wonder how the 7% to 8% per year of your own patients that move, affect your overall profits? What about those patients you are indifferent to? What, you’re not indifferent to any of them? Really? How do they know? Do you communicate with them often and tell them?

Have you ever wondered how much it costs you every day, every week, every month in lost profit, when you add up all that attrition and you don’t have a regular flow on new patients hammering on your door and burning up your phone lines?

It’s no wonder new patient marketing is absolutely central to a practice’s survival. I mean you don’t even have to piss off anyone, screw up a crown prep or third molar extraction to lose a patient. They’ll just leave because traveling from Idaho back to New Jersey for a cleaning just isn’t practical.

Or worse, they’ll figure you don’t care because no one ever called them to remind them of the treatment you’ve prescribed.

If your patient base is 2,000, you’ll lose 70 to 80 patients each year just from attrition (that’s 5.8 to 6.7 pts every month). And, if you’re not adding those back into your patient base through constant, consistent, marketing efforts, you’re shrinking. And, fast. After two years, you’ll lose 20% of your patient base.

THINK: Retention & Attraction. Those are the #1 and #2 Jobs Of Your Marketing

There are two central themes I find in practices that are always growing, regardless of the economy: They communicate regularly to their existing patients, and, they are always looking for another source of new patients. Not just one source, but multiple sources. Me, I’m looking all the time. My ears and eyes are naturally tuned for that kind of thing; always on the lookout for an untapped media we can test.

And, if you’re in an intensely competitive area and you’re having to fork over a few hundred bucks each or more for new patients, then do this: FOCUS ON REFERRALS.

There are two places you need to always focus on referrals: in-office and out-of-the-office.

In-office is done with signage (The Best Compliment You Can Give…) and conversations you and your team have with patients. Your office mgr should be measuring and reviewing patient referrals and staff referrals with you every week.

There should be a simple bonus system in place to encourage and recognize both (pts and staff). What gets measured…(You know the drill, right?)

If you’re not communicating with your patients every month and letting them know about all the cool stuff you do in your office, then someone else will start communicating with your patient and there’s a solid chance you’ll lose them.

You’ve had patients say, “I didn’t know you did that!” right? Well, that can easily be squashed if you communicate more often and in more media channels. Email. Text. Mail (and you can mail a LOT of different things including your monthly newsletter, birthday cards, etc.). And, yes, if you are a social media butterfly, then engage that stuff, too.

If you’re not corralling your “herd” of patients and keeping them engaged and in tune, someone else will.

Start a monthly newsletter (we do it all here for you). Start a regular email (just email your monthly newsletter). Start a monthly texting special (sealants, whitening, X% off for Vets, etc.).

The more you engage your patients, the more they will engage you.

Oh, and if doing $3.4 Million in annual production – of bread-n-butter dentistry by yourself – is appealing, you’ll want to hear how ClearPath Society® Member Darold Opp pulls it off. You can check that out here.

Occasionally, my wife and I will talk dentistry. You might think we’d talk about it all the time, given her background and what I do everyday. But, in reality, the actual “delivery” of dental services doesn’t get a lot of talk time in our house.

On the flip side, I do talk to her about clients, what they’re up to, what we’re doing for them from the promotion side of things, unique stuff they do in their office for their patients, etc. It’s good dinnertime conversation.

[And, no, it’s not good pillow talk 😉 ]

But, the other night as we were rounding up the kids for bed (Two girls, 12 & 5 — both absolute characters and a helluva lot of fun), she mentioned braces for our oldest. In fact, here they are on a recent camping trip cookin’ up some popcorn:

I don’t think her teeth are crooked. I mean, heck, they look fine to me.

So, you can imagine, the first thing in my mind is: finances. Yeah. It’ll cost something to get those babies straightened out.

It’s probably the first thing on every parent’s mind when it comes to ortho, right? It sure isn’t a “technical issue or question,” is it?

This is the exact same thought process that takes place for all larger-case dentistry. No matter kids or adults.

Financing is an initial thought, if not outright concern.

My question for you: Are you eliviating this concern or are you ignoring the ugly, fat, obnoxious and stinky elephant in the room?

If you’re prescribing Tx and your team isn’t saying, “Don’t worry, we have 38 ways you can take care of the financial side of the treatment — I am very confident we can find a way that works for you,” then you’ve got a problem and you’re not doing as much treatment as you could be.

At SofTouch Dental, we use the following options to help patients get the treatment they need and want:

– cash (5% discount);

– credit cards (all of them, no discount — and we do utilize CareCredit, but certainly not my favorite due to added expense);

– senior discount (5% for all above age 55);

– 20% down, plus lab fee, 6 months or less to pay at 18% interest (1.5% per month) — For special, known-patients, we’ll extend that for up to 9 months;

– 1/3 at impression, 1/3 at delivery, 1/3 within 30 days; and,

– equal pre-pay payments before treatment begins — and, they can take as many months as they want to build up the credit, plus, they can cancel it at any time. In other words, no-risk for them.

The KEY to the above is that we always, always, always have a payment METHOD and option chosen in advance so my office manager isn’t chasing patients down for payment. We use debit or credit cards, bank account draft (ACH — via savings or checking), and pre-written checks.

Good luck. Remove some of the stress and help your patients by making the decision to move forward, easy.

Oh, and a nice side-benefit, your existing patients will be FAR more likely to refer others to you if they know you’re fair and flexible.

Patients won’t refer to an office that says, “Hey, give me your money at TOS. Otherwise, get the **** out.”

Occasionally, my wife and I will talk dentistry. You might think we’d talk about it all the time, given her background and what I do everyday. But, in reality, the actual “delivery” of dental services doesn’t get a lot of talk time in our house.

On the flip side, I do talk to her about clients, what they’re up to, what we’re doing for them from the promotion side of things, unique stuff they do in their office for their patients, etc. It’s good dinnertime conversation.

[And, no, it’s not good pillow talk 😉 ]

But, the other night as we were rounding up the kids for bed (Two girls, 12 & 5 — both absolute characters and a helluva lot of fun), she mentioned braces for our oldest. In fact, here they are on a recent camping trip cookin’ up some popcorn:

I don’t think her teeth are crooked. I mean, heck, they look fine to me.

So, you can imagine, the first thing in my mind is: finances. Yeah. It’ll cost something to get those babies straightened out.

It’s probably the first thing on every parent’s mind when it comes to ortho, right? It sure isn’t a “technical issue or question,” is it?

This is the exact same thought process that takes place for all larger-case dentistry. No matter kids or adults.

Financing is an initial thought, if not outright concern.

My question for you: Are you eliviating this concern or are you ignoring the ugly, fat, obnoxious and stinky elephant in the room?

If you’re prescribing Tx and your team isn’t saying, “Don’t worry, we have 38 ways you can take care of the financial side of the treatment — I am very confident we can find a way that works for you,” then you’ve got a problem and you’re not doing as much treatment as you could be.

At SofTouch Dental, we use the following options to help patients get the treatment they need and want:

– cash (5% discount);

– credit cards (all of them, no discount — and we do utilize CareCredit, but certainly not my favorite due to added expense);

– senior discount (5% for all above age 55);

– 20% down, plus lab fee, 6 months or less to pay at 18% interest (1.5% per month) — For special, known-patients, we’ll extend that for up to 9 months;

– 1/3 at impression, 1/3 at delivery, 1/3 within 30 days; and,

– equal pre-pay payments before treatment begins — and, they can take as many months as they want to build up the credit, plus, they can cancel it at any time. In other words, no-risk for them.

The KEY to the above is that we always, always, always have a payment METHOD and option chosen in advance so my office manager isn’t chasing patients down for payment. We use debit or credit cards, bank account draft (ACH — via savings or checking), and pre-written checks.

Good luck. Remove some of the stress and help your patients by making the decision to move forward, easy.

Oh, and a nice side-benefit, your existing patients will be FAR more likely to refer others to you if they know you’re fair and flexible.

Patients won’t refer to an office that says, “Hey, give me your money at TOS. Otherwise, get the **** out.”

I had a doctor tell me earlier this week he saw no need to see younger patients in his office since so much of what he does is adult dentistry and very little pedo.

This kind of narrow thinking can cost you in more than one way.

I encourage my clients to see children as often as they can. Here in Oregon, EFDAs can do the vast majority of a new patient visit, so long as adult dentition (going from memory here) is not present.

That means, the cost to get the work done is far less significant for the office. It has less of an impact on expenses.

That’s one reason. It’s really an OK reason, but it’s the the #1 reason why I’d encourage you to see children in your office (age 4 or 5 and up maybe??):

You get access to the parents.

What does that mean exactly?

While little Suzie or Johnnie is in the chair, your staff is working their magic, your entire office ought to be working mom and/or dad.

It’s an opportunity for you to offer a complimentary (free) exam and x-rays. You have no marketing cost. Just fulfillment cost and most likely, excess capacity. (That is far more costly to your bottom line than offering a free exam, isn’t it? The minutes tick away every day whether you have a butt in the op or not…it’s costing you!)

The conversation goes something like this:

“Mrs. Jones, we’re sure glad you got Suzie and Johnnie in today for their appointments. Looks like they’re both going to have a (insert results here) visit. That’s really good news.

“While you’re here, are there any areas of concern you have of your own for YOU?”

It’s a Yes or No answer, right?

If it’s No, great. If it’s a Yes, then, “Mrs. Jones, we’ve got a hole in our schedule and we’d be honored to offer you a complimentary exam and some time with the doctor to see what the trouble might be. It won’t cost you a thing and take a few minutes is all. I’ll have Ammie take you back and get things started.”

USE every opportunity given to you to serve your patients. If you blow opps like this, you’re basically making things far too hard on you and your staff, and, you’re costing yourself a ton of money.

Look around and see what you’ve got to offer. And, ASK folks how you can help!

Another example: We see a fair number of elderly patients for dentures. Generally, a family member brings them in. Well, you gotta wonder why they didn’t just go to that family member’s dentist, right? Well, would it surprise you to know that MOST of those folks don’t have a regular dentist?

CURRENT EVENTS

Join us at the next PACK YOUR SCHEDULE New Patient Extravaganza! Stop struggling with new patients and enjoy practice again! Info @ BusyDentist.com to learn more.

So Who is Jerry Jones?

As the nation’s top expert on professional practice marketing with over 15 years experience, Jerry spends most of his time developing marketing and advertising strategies for his limited number of private clients and ClearPath Society Members.